Early the next morning, Lucas woke up far earlier than usual. After a quick wash, he headed downstairs to the office—only to find that Skye had beaten him to it. She was already at her desk, fingers flying across the keyboard.
"Skye, what are you always tinkering with on that computer? Let me take a look."
Lucas dragged a chair beside her and leaned in. The screen was filled with dense streams of code—lines and symbols that made his brain feel like it had just blue-screened.
"So, understand any of it?" Skye asked, not even pausing her furious typing.
Lucas nodded solemnly. "Yeah. A little. It's like… these codes recognize me—but I don't recognize them."
Skye shot him a side-eye. "...Right. I'm upgrading the security system for our building. S.H.I.E.L.D. just rolled out a new batch of tech, and our defenses are lagging behind."
Her hands blurred across the keyboard, almost leaving afterimages. Lucas half expected the laptop to burst into flames.
"How do you even know S.H.I.E.L.D. updated their equipment?" he asked, baffled. That kind of thing should've been top secret.
"I watched," she said flatly.
Lucas blinked. "You… watched?"
"Yeah. I left a backdoor in their surveillance network ages ago. I can peek for five minutes at a time before they kick me out. But it was enough to see them upgrading their hardware and backend systems. So I'm just… leveling up ours too, in case they get nosy."
Her tone was calm, almost robotic—but Lucas's blood ran cold.
That was S.H.I.E.L.D. she was talking about, not some mom-and-pop security firm. And the craziest part? She'd been caught once already, yet somehow still managed to leave a backdoor behind. Either Skye was an absolute genius… or S.H.I.E.L.D.'s IT department was made of cardboard.
"Oh, by the way," Skye said suddenly, switching screens. "Stark Industries stock dropped again. Everyone's dumping it."
The monitor flashed bright red—so red that Lucas instinctively shielded his eyes. The graph looked tragic, like a wilted eggplant, or a soggy day-old dough stick—completely lifeless.
"Perfect!" Lucas exclaimed. "We're going to make a killing!"
Skye choked on her berry tea. "Boss… are you seriously okay? Should I call a doctor? This sounds like a full-on delusional episode."
"Who's delusional? You are! Listen, once Tony Stark gets rescued, the stock's going to skyrocket. When that happens, we sell everything."
"...Whatever you say, boss."
Skye sighed in resignation. She was done arguing.
By noon, the two of them were tearing into their lunch—pan-seared leopard steak with wine sauce—when Natasha suddenly burst in, looking exhausted and covered in dust.
"What are you two eating?" she blurted out, instantly forgetting whatever she'd come to say. Her eyes were locked on the food like a starving wolf.
"Uh… where have you been?" Lucas asked, surprised. She looked like she'd just come back from a survival show.
"Don't ask. Just feed me. I haven't had a proper meal in days."
She collapsed onto the couch, grabbed Skye's half-finished berry tea, and downed it in one gulp. The icy sweetness made her shiver with bliss.
Lucas handed her a plate of leopard steak. She devoured it like someone who hadn't seen civilization in weeks.
After polishing it off and refilling herself with more tea, Natasha finally sighed in relief, slumping back against the sofa.
"So?" Skye asked. "What happened to you? You look like you've been living in the wild."
Natasha groaned. "You know Tony Stark got kidnapped, right?"
"I think all of New York knows," Skye replied dryly.
"The Director sent us to find him—in the middle of a desert. Do you have any idea how hard it is to locate a terrorist base in all that sand?"
She looked genuinely pitiful.
Days of fruitless searching, no proper food, no progress—she might as well have been on a fool's errand.
"You still haven't found him?" Skye asked anxiously—after all, her financial future literally depended on it.
Lucas, meanwhile, didn't look worried at all. "Relax. Those terrorists have plans for Stark. They won't kill him. Not yet."
Knowing the future had its perks—Lucas was perfectly aware Tony would survive and make his dramatic comeback.
"Oh, right," Natasha said, smacking her forehead. "That's actually why I'm here. The Director wants to hire you to find Tony Stark. Think you can do it?"
Lucas's smile turned sly as he rubbed his fingers together meaningfully.
Natasha rolled her eyes but nodded. "Money's not a problem. As long as you can locate him, S.H.I.E.L.D. will pay whatever it takes. Just don't get greedy."
Lucas grinned like a cat that had just found a canary. "Pleasure doing business. Give me a day to prepare—I'll call you tomorrow."
Natasha shook her head helplessly. "Fine. Oh, and—you didn't rent out my apartment, right?"
"Nope," Skye said. "Your lease is still good."
"Perfect. I'm taking a shower and sleeping for twelve hours. You two do whatever."
And with that, she disappeared upstairs.
Lucas sat in thought for a while. This rescue mission could be a golden opportunity. After a moment, he turned to Skye.
She noticed his stare and blinked. "What? Do I have something on my face?"
"Skye," Lucas said seriously, "if you had a chance to awaken superpowers… what would you do?"
Her eyes widened. "Wait, what? You're joking, right?"
Lucas didn't answer. He just smiled faintly.
Skye was, after all, Inhuman by birth. Her genes carried latent power—she just hadn't been exposed to Terrigen to trigger it.
And this upcoming mission might be his chance to get a certain obelisk—the very thing that could awaken her abilities.
"Wait a sec…" Skye gasped. "Boss, are you saying… you're going to teach me magic?"
Her eyes sparkled like a kid seeing her first lightsaber.
Lucas just grinned mysteriously. "Something like that."
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